There was a feminine hand tracing over their face and they was smiling a little bit. They might have muttered something that might have been ‘mommy’ and the petting continued. The hand traced down their cheek and down their neck, exploring about the skin. They could hear a voice mumbling things to them, but they wasn’t sure what it was. Couldn’t quite make it out. It had to have been praise though since it was making them feel really good about themself. The hand had paused at their chest and a second one joined in. The hands were sort of massaging the muscles under the skin, trying to figure out if they were . . . Was that the word durable? Why did their mom want to know if their muscles were durable?

They glanced down at the hands and they were no longer feminine and soft. They were large, rough, and they were starting to hurt them. They whimpered and felt their body get shoved to the ground. They tried to scramble to their feet, but a booted foot made contact with their stomach and they could feel all the air rushing out of their lungs. They coughed and sputtered only to have that boot made contact with their face. They could feel something resembling blood leaking out of their nose, something coming out of their mouth. A boot stepped on their back and started to apply a steady pressure and they thought they could hear bones breaking. They would have screamed, but just as suddenly as it had changed the first time, the person changed again.

This time the hand was offering to help them up and they all too eagerly took it. They picked them up, dusted them off, cleaned them up. Everything made them feel safe. They found themself clinging tightly to them and burying their face into their chest. They were offering them safety, something about trying to give them a better life. Something that they would have jumped at the chance for, but at the same time, was that a hand slipping down into their pants?

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The red satin sheets were bunched up around the sleeping form on the bed, tightly curled around the frame of the person occupying it. Not even their head was peeking out. If one was listening as closely as they could, going so far as to press their ear to the door, they might have heard something that resembled a soft sort of whimpering. The figure on the bed clutched the stuffed toy in their arms to their chest, whining a word that might have been ‘mommy’. The voice in the whimper would have confused anyone at first, the tone suggesting that it was female. Even the shrill cry of fear might have been enough to arouse such a suspicion. However, shortly after such a cry was uttered, the blanket was quickly tossed aside revealing that of a male. Seeing as the teenager didn’t wear a shirt to bed, it was sort of obvious what the gender turned out to be. Although, one shouldn’t really judge based on chest and voice alone. The person was panting heavily, the stuffed sock monkey now being held tightly to their chest with one arm. There were tears streaming from their eyes, their free arm trying to wipe them away. A noise was heard, the opening of a door, and their attention was immediately on it. A familiar face appeared in the glow of a small light and they found themselves relaxing, collapsing back on the bed.

“Nightmare again, I take it.” Mused the gruff sounding voice as they made their way over to the figure on the bed. A huff was their response, the satin sheet being retrieved from its place on the bed, returning to cover slender shoulders. Their eyes closed, the soft material of the toy pressing against bare skin. “You know, if you’d follow my instructions, this wouldn’t happen.”

“If anyone had listened to you in the first place, perhaps I wouldn’t be in the state that I’m in.” Mused a disgruntled voice as said person pulled the pillow up over their head. “But as it stands, what difference would any of this make?”

“Well for one, the Sovereign would get a good night’s sleep without fear of being woken up in the middle of the night and he wouldn’t have to wake his butler with a scream. Its very tiring to come in here and check on you, you know.” Though, if it had really been a burden, Arsenic might not have stayed up night after night and waited for the telltale sign, wouldn’t sit in the chair in the corner afterwards just to look after the boy. He didn’t expect a response, this had become quite the routine of sorts for the two of them.

“Good night, old bear.” The butler found himself smirking as he replied with, “Good night, little brat.”

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It was undeterminable what woke them up first; the scent of breakfast wafting in through his nostrils, the bright sunlight that assaulted his eyes, or that godawful voice of that dreadful butler. Had the blade been attached to the armored finger ring, he might have thrown it at the man for daring to disturb his slumber. There was a noise akin to a hiss releasing itself from between pursed lips, a very angry teenager pulling a blanket over his face and putting a stuffed toy over his eyes. There was a chuckle from the butler as he stood by the bed, cart of food next to him. He wouldn’t allow the teen to eat in bed. No, this was more of a lure to get him out of it. One might think it foolish to bring an entire cart of food up to the male’s room in that instance then, but . . . Who said that it was a full cart of food to begin with? It had just enough on it to create an aroma, laced with just enough honey to sweeten the deal enough to get the young man out of bed.

“Rise and shine, you have a big day ahead of you.”

“You’re right. I have to plan your funeral and make arrangements to hire a new doctor and a new butler.”

“But why hire two people when you can just keep me around for the same needs to be met?”

Silence and there was the smallest bit of movement and the covering was slipping away. Gray eyes struggled to focus for the briefest of moments, the blaring sun still beating in at them. When he finally saw what he smelt, his mouth started to water a little bit. There was more shifting and the stuffed doll was left alone on the bed, tangled up in the sheet from the night before. Having struggled to get out of bed, the Sovereign was now seen wearing gold satin undergarments that were peeking out of the top of red flannel pants. If it wasn’t obvious now, it would never be, the Sovereign was definitely a boy.

One hand reached forward while the other went up, fingers running through the shaggy mane of silvery white hair. A plate of delicious looking toast was within his grasp, but the cart moved. He groaned and took a few steps forward and reached for it again. Once more the cart moved. He growled and glanced up at the butler. If he could have wiped that innocent looking smirk off the man’s face, he would have. Would have trashed that man’s face. But he needed this man to have a face so he would leave him alone for the time being. Would be a good boy and follow after the cart if only for the fact he wanted the sweet things that were on it. Admittedly, the Sovereign would have followed the cart if it were merely slathered in honey with nothing else on it. Would have followed the fucking butler into Hell and back if he was smothered in honey. Had to have been a honey badger thing otherwise he probably wouldn’t have given two shits about it. Though, one could also point out that the butler was being resourceful, using just enough persuasion to keep the lad interested, making sure he came all the way down to the table for breakfast instead of getting distracted with his dolls or whatever else there was to distract the young one’s mind.

The walk down to the dining hall was uneventful, the young man stuffing toast into his mouth as they rode the elevator downwards. He would have eaten more, but his kept getting smacked away. He shuffled even further down a new hallway towards their destination, finally moving a bit faster than the cart once a large set of double doors opened. A brief utterance of the word ‘foooooooood’ and the Sovereign was more or less falling into his seat and shoveling the food into his face. Honestly, one would have thought he might have been the child of one of the servants or something with the way he was acting, but everyone knew who he was and they were not about to correct his behavior. The only one brave enough to was, of course, the butler. Though, it occurred to the man that it would be far funnier to watch the other try to get the honey out of his hair in his bath after this. So he casually stood off to the side, light up a cigarette, and watched his charge make a fool of himself for breakfast.

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Arsenic decided that his time was best spent looking over the Sovereign’s attire for the day instead of being in the bathroom at the moment. He could hear water running, a mumbled voice, and a violinist playing. He didn’t understand why they had to be in the bathroom, but he just wasn’t going to question it. At least they had a nice little covered and shielded area to sit and play. “You had better be getting in the bath, young man.” He heard a loud groan, but heard the water sloshing around. Perfect. Now he leaned himself into the bathroom doorway and list up another cigarette, counting the minutes in his head before he would hear the unmistakable whine of a boy in need. Honestly, it wouldn’t even be that hard to get the honey out of his hair if he would just try. But he stood there in silence and waited; he knew the bath routine and any second now he would hear the scream . . .

“WHAT IS IN MY HAIR?!” And there it was.

“Honey.” Mused the butler, taking a moment to blow some smoke. “Your eating habits in the mornings need to improve, milord.”

“FIX IT, ARSENIC!”

“Sir, all you have to do is actually wash yo- . . .”

“I SAID FIX IT, ARSENIC!”

“No need to shout.” The butler sighed, putting his cigarette out on his gloved hand, putting what remained of it behind his ear. He rolled up his sleeves and walked over to the tub and knelt beside it, making sure to take his gloves off before getting them wet in the bath water. Why this boy couldn’t do simple things like this for himself, he’d never understand. But then again, he figured that he knew. Deep down, the butler knew. Probably why he never complained and just did what he was told in moments like this. A happy Sovereign was the best Sovereign and he planned on doing his best to keep things that way.

It took washing his hair at least three different times to get all the honey out. Granted, the butler had it all out in the first washing, but the Sovereign just didn’t believe him and made him wash it twice more. He would have thought that that would have been it, wouldn’t want anything else from him. He had a cigarette to finish and sort of needed it right now. But since the butler was already at the bathtub so he might as well finish up the rest of the bath. The violinist wasn’t new to any of this, they could more or less just ignore the words, the actions that he could hear over the music. Just made sure to keep playing the same songs that he knew the Sovereign loved. Anything to keep the poor boy calm while they were in the bathtub. How many murders had he witnessed because someone did something small that no one would have thought about being wrong that upset the teenager in the bath right now? As long as he could keep the music playing everything would be perfectly fine. And as long as Arsenic didn’t argue too much and just kept washing the way he was told to, the way that he knew the boy liked, this would be fine. A quick glance to the Sovereign's face and the violinist could see how relaxed he was. Yeah, the bath was almost over.

Aside from the honey in his hair, the bath went by without anymore problems. Then it was time to get out and get dressed. The outfit for today’s proceedings was black dress pants and shirt, and his gray suit jacket. Now, he could have walked into the closet and looked everything over for himself. He was wrapped in a towel, water dripping down his legs as he looked over other wardrobe choices. He could wear the gold suit. Or the red suit. Ooooh, he could wear a mix of the two! But he glanced at what was already on the bed. Giving it some more thought, would his earrings match those? He tilted his head back and forth, walking the full length of the walk in closet before leaving it and closing the door behind him. Alright, fine. He’d wear what the butler picked out for him. A drop of the towel and he was stretching by the bedside, reaching for his underwear. That was always first. From there he tugged on his pants and his shirts, the jacket being last.

He spent in time in front of one of the massive mirrors in the corner of his room, carefully putting his earnings in. He touched up his appearance here and there, added what other jewelry that he felt like wearing for the day before walking over to his nightstand. There on the top was the dragon claw ring the old Sovereign had given him when they’d first met. It had seemed like a strange gift to give him thinking back; why give a five year old an odd ring with a blade attached to it? Though, the blade part had been taken from him, he had gotten it back around the time he had taken power so that was fine. He didn’t have the blade attached to it right now, no that was in a special box that he was now slipping into his pocket should he need it later.

“Are you ready?” The Sovereign shrugged a little bit, still staring at himself in the mirror. Damn, he looked good. He’d kiss that face. Hell, might have kissed the mirror if he was alone. Knew that Arsenic would crack a joke if he saw something like that. “Are you going to work on your dolls this morning? You have enough time before your tea party to do that, I think.”

“I don’t really want to work on them right now, I might do that after the tea party. I would, however, like to go down there long enough to collect three of my favorites. They’re the guests for today’s party.” The butler nodded and the two of them trekked down to what might have been considered a basement. There were dolls littered all over the place, whole dolls displayed on shelves on three of the four walls. The last wall was on the far side of the room and it held tools to varying degrees and doll parts. That was his work station. Though, next to the workstation were three very special dolls. His favorite dolls. His babies. His most precious creations. He smiled brightly and clapped his hands together, muttered something under his breath, and shuffled over to them. He carefully unlocked the case and took them out, hugging each one of them. Arsenic had to carry two of them because as it turned out, Malik couldn’t fit all three in his arms. Not for lack of trying either, but he didn't think that it was comfortable for them. Funny how he cared more for inanimate objects than he did living people. So he carried his favorite one, spoke to her as they began to walk towards the throne room. He spoke idly to the other two, but more to the one he was carrying. He pet her hair, kissed the side of her face . . . This one was his favorite, his darling baby. He had made the special modifications to her first. Mm, he was so enamored with his doll that he didn’t realize they had already arrived and walked right into the throne room doors. Luckily though, he only hurt himself and not his baby.

“Here, let me get that for you.” He heard the gruff voice of one of the guardsmen as he began to move. Both of them had seemed to get a chuckle out of him hitting the door. Let’s just see how funny it was when he decided he didn’t like that.

“Arsenic. Kill them.” The butler started to put the dolls down when the guard captain ran over and got the attention of the Sovereign.

“Sir, if I may. There isn’t a need to kill them!”

“Are the three of you new?” There was something resembling nods all around. “Arsenic, kill these three for me real quick and call in some of the veteran replacements.” With that, he leaned down and picked up the other two dolls, walking into the room itself. The doors closed and instead of killing them, he simply told them they were being transferred as far away from their leader as possible if they valued their lives. He even made sure to write them a note and they took off as fast as they could. He called in replacement guards and waited for them to arrive before he entered the throne room himself.

Without straying too much, a straight on shot from the front doors, the Sovereign could be seen at the very end of a long hall. He had placed his three dolls down into smaller chairs so their lifeless eyes were more or less staring into space around the room. The man himself was looking rather bored on what could have just been marble at this distance. Oddly shaped marble, but hey. The Sovereign was a peculiar fellow. Although, if a person was feeling daring enough, they could inspect the 'oddly shaped marble' and discover that the entire throne was made from human bones. Bleached white human bones. The backdrop could immediately be seen as well, one side holding the gold banners and other artifacts for House Meticulous. The other side was decked out in the blood red banners of House Draconian, their banners and artifacts lining their half of the wall. The throne area itself was elevated off the main floor, a set of stairs leading up to and encircling it. Those were definitely marble, the color as black as coal. This led into the floor for the rest of the hall which was that of white marble. The rest of the hall though. That was certainly a sight behold. It had been completely remodeled from the last Sovereign. This one hadn’t really wanted to do it, but after much consideration and thought, he decided to make this place his own instead of living in his predecessor's shadow.

The walls themselves were lined with bones, but being able to tell if they were real or not would require closer inspection. No one really wanted to get that close though in fear they might find out something that they just didn’t want to. Though to be fair, those were bones in the wall. The walls were lined with the varying bones or humans and animals alike, but situated in such a way that it looked natural and normal. The bones themselves were mostly just leg bones, femurs and tibia and even a couple fibula. There might have been a few arm bones, mostly the humerus. They were pressed together and looked so pretty. Even better was the fact they were bleached to look really white and made everything look really beautiful in the Sovereign’s mind.

There was a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling that was made of bones, mostly skulls and spines. It could even light up if it was wanted to. As much as he would have wanted there to be actual fire involved with the lighting it up, he had been talked out of that. There were lightbulbs in the skulls that made the eyeballs light up. Always brought a smile and some claps from the sixteen year old ruler. The chain that it was attached to it that made it hang from the ceiling was even the vertebrae of the lower spine since those were the biggest of them all. The smaller vertebrae were sort of little danglies from just a little bit behind the skulls (For more details, ask and I’ll provide a picture). It might not have casted that much light, but it illuminated the ceiling just enough for the Sovereign to be happy. For the rest of the lighting in the room, there were drop down light holders lined with LEDs that he could flip a switch and they were changed between a normal light that would illuminate the room, a strobe light, a black light, an infrared light, and an incredibly blinding light. Why he’d need that one he hadn’t really figured out yet, but one of the crazy inventors said something about it being really cool and he should totally have it. So the Sovereign has it. For no reason other than that it was really cool sounding.

Now, as Arsenic entered the room, the decorations on either side of him sat on little tables made of bones about three feet high. They had little candles on them that were glowing a little bit. The table clothes swayed in the wind that was kicked up by the butler’s movements. There were various decorations spread about the room, suits of armor, paintings of various things, statues . . . Though, one painting in particular was sort of given more attention than the others. It was one of the old Sovereign and it looked as though someone was making a shrine out of it. Why? Why not! There were other little things that would have drawn attention if they were looked at, but they weren’t of much of any importance. Not that Arsenic needed to pay attention to them, he was merely walking over to his boss, standing off to the side of him should the man need anything from him. Not that the bored teenager seemed to think that he needed much of anything at the time. He sat there with an unimpressed look on his face until an hour had passed. That’s when he requested the tea be brought out to him. So while his Butler went out to get the tea, the Sovereign slipped off his throne and began to set up the party.

“Alright, Miranda, I’m going to need you to sit here.” Mused the Sovereign as he picked up his favorite doll of the three and placed her into a decorative chair with a skull at the end of each arm. “And you, Raquel, you can sit on the left.” He picked the next one up and set her down in a chair that had a spread rib cage as the back of it. “And that means you, Blaire, you get to sit here.” The last chair looked like it was made entirely out of the finger and toes bones of its victims and the doll sit perfectly on the edge where she was placed. The table itself looked to be made out of femurs with the top of it being covered with what appeared to be just a piece of red and gold silk. What was hiding underneath of it, well . . . Let’s just say he wouldn’t subject his dolls to that kind of thing. He nestled himself down in a spot between Miranda and Blaire, talking to them as if they were real people until the butler came back. He served the dolls as if they were honored guests, standing a little bit off to the side should they ‘ask’ for anything else. There was enough room on the other side of the table for a grown man to sit. That was technically where the Sovereign should have been sitting, but he wanted to be close to Miranda so this was where he decided to be, leaving the other space open.

Now, the Sovereign was pretty good right now. He was feeling relaxed, happy. Hadn’t really planned on anything happening today. Sure, he had things that he needed to attend to and all, but he was currently busy and all appointments were on hold. He was just sitting there, talking and laughing and having so much fun. No one would have honestly thought that he was who he was. Probably would have thought that he was the kid of the leader or something. Might have dismissed him or whatever. But no, those who knew would have . . . Should have felt something resembling fear or some kind of uneasy emotion. The leader of the free world was more or less just kind of sitting there, having a tea party.

With dolls.

Last edited by AsherTheLion on Mon Dec 12, 2016 11:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.

(This spoiler reveleas everything that happened in one post so you don't have to scroll through all of them.)

Spoiler:

A small group of soldiers had been marching back into the city, some of these men had been on stretchers, others were being carried in coffins, those of them who had not made the trip back in time. They were coming up to the heavily guarded gates of city hall, as a courier ran up to eight men all dressed in armor who stood perfectly still. Eyes not moving to look in other directions, bodies not swaying with the wind, only blinking when absolutely needed. They stood guard of the entire fortress that was now the home base of the Meticulous and Draconian combined effort, additionally, it was where the Sovereign resided.

The courier was out of breath, holding up a small tattered paper that held the engraved golden sigil of house Meticulous on it. The signature below the sigil was that of Margrete Meticulous, which would grant the courier and the platoon behind him access into the fortress, that is after each body had been checked and investigated thoroughly by the guards. The courier was allowed access, as it was his job to alert all of the other gate keepers that that platoon was on its way, with wounded and dead men. The men carrying the wounded were inspected first along with the wounded. There were only two of them.

A guard spoke up to one of the men holding what appeared to be a sleeping boy. “Names… all of you..” The first soldier spoke up, giving the names of all of the men who were not unconscious, pointing them out as each of them raised their hands when called. “And what about these two..” The guard pointed at the two unconscious boys, that were sprawled out on stretchers. “This one's Apollo, I am sure you have heard of him, he is Baer’s boy the one who inherited a fortune after being adopted… and the other one is Lan he as of today is a sergeant which means he out ranks you… so let him through… additionally be on the lookout for a hummingbird… it has been following them around… apparently they were helped by a shamed that can transform into a humming bird… dont want that kind muck hanging around and dragging down there worth and all that, shouldn't be around important people like them… so… it is kill on site for that one… the courier is also delivering that bit or should be” “He hadn’t”

As the platoon was searched outside of the gate, Apollo and Lan along with their commander, and the select few who were carrying the wounded and the dead were allowed through. Apollo and Lan were taken to the nearest medical facility, while the dead were taken to where they would be prepared for their final resting places. The commander on the other hand had news to deliver, urgent news. He wasn’t the lowest ranking officer, but he was certainly no general or governor. He began to make his way into the main city hall building where the officers and council members worked together to make the big decisions of the war. He knew this report would look negative and would definitely put a halt to any chance of promotion he had. So he was nervous as his feet marched down a long hall way, where the Meticulous council debated and argued about military movement and direction of force.

The Council had just finished their third quarterly meeting for the day, having to meet four times over the span of twenty four hours over where the direction of their forces were, where they were going, who their targets were, and the methods they were using to capture, or kill targets vs gaining information on targets. The Commander opened doors, as a gavel struck a desk twice, but before it struck a third time, he spoke “Wait… I have news from the battle front…” While he appeared calm and collected on the surface a storm of emotions brewed, he could see the impatience and anger residing in men's eyes, the only thing they had wanted at this point was to be allowed to spend their time as they pleased, their shift due to these meetings often time causing them to nap multiple times a day, the most sleep they could get at any given point of the day being very minimal specifically due to outburst like his. It was a flaw in the command structure design, but it had been put together in a hurry, and it stuck oftentimes council members would rotate out for field positions to avoid being overworked.

Whispers followed, and then a yell “Come on, get on with the bad news then soldier!”

The commander let out a sigh, “So our mission to apprehend Jauraumer au Los was successful, freeing his slaves was not… and the casualty count is in the hundreds… and potentially growing for anyone else that ventures out into the Western Seas of Gale… the Slavers of Discord have somehow acquired means to force their slaves to transform into animals and go rabid. He had a small girl transform into a killer whale.. All of the slaves were killed… but not before my men dispatched with the slave lord and confirmed his death… the two men have received promotions as I was absent during the initial struggle attempting to receive a warrant for his arrest that was missing in my initial set of field grade orders. This time the frustrated glares had been turned back at them, he hoped that this was good enough to get rid of the growing fire that he felt under his ass.

The eyes of other commanders who were in the council looked back at him. “So you were unable to kill the whale and it now roams free… what happens when it travels… why was this not escalated to the Arch General right away… this is potentially disastrous to our entire navy considering…”

Voices began to rise up once more and the sound of arguing began to fill the room, the commander had done his part and let out a sigh of relief, he took a seat close to the door, as the council began to figure out a plan to assess, and take down this new target. They would need the Arch Governor, and Arch General’s approval for a majority of the plans they were currently in the process of tackling, that is when another soldier delivered the news the Arch General Meticulous was currently in a battle to the death with the Demon of Icarus Campus… another of their targets that had exterminated many of the soldiers they sent after her. An even angrier uproar began from that moment because everyone knew that had they not figured out what their next plan of action was they would have to take their issues directly to the Sovereign, the child with his foot on society’s throat.

The commander sat there with an amused smirk, white gloves were whipped off, blood feuds were claimed.. Leaders died right there on the table where pistols and swords were drawn out of sheer frustration and humiliation. The Darkness of house Meticulous and house Draconian were mostly apparent here, where despite being at war, they still somehow managed to fight amongst themselves. The gavel had continuously struck the desk, deafened by the sound of gunshots to skulls, and the clashing of swords, daggers, and small portable shields. Things finally began to settle down as order overcame chaos, “So… someone… needs to report all of this to the Sovereign… this is no longer within our jurisdiction… the whale and the unicorn both need to be dealt with by any means…. And then there is the issue of our previous discussion… what to do about house Mutiny… which is currently under attack by house Pandemonium… we can’t depend on them for power… if our enemies get a hold of that dam… we will be like mice at the bottom of the ocean… drowning and food for far worse fish!”

The sheer frustration of the current sitting of the battle field for Meticulous in shambles… “Well… not fishes… but a whale…” He accidentally said out loud a grin on his face, as he crossed his legs and patiently waited for the few who remained standing to make some kind of decision… or at the very least, release him from his report and let the brains figure out what the next course of action should be. He then had an idea, a means to promote himself and his men in a positive light. “Excuse me gentlemen, might I offer a suggestion…” The room began to quiet down once more, and his hands gestured for everyone to take a seat. He began to walk towards the main stage to present his ideas, “Me and my sergeants are currently not fit for battle… but given enough recovery time and a fresh set of troops… we can go back and handle the whale target… additionally when we are successful we will personally go to the dam and aid in fortifications there bolstering negotiations in good faith… after all they recently made the call for leaders to send ambassadors… what better way to show we mean business then to sent a supportive force to our cousins so to speak”

The men of the council all stopped to process this, whispers once more, albeit a significantly quieter amount. A man stood up and raised his hand, “I propose that we follow through with his plan… not only does it give him full responsibility but this also means he will be the one who has to speak directly to the Sovereign with this information, so in order to do that an immediate promotion to council member is awarded to him under the code of emergency provisions. Additionally commander… you are to report immediately as time is of the essence… we will send a recon squad to each of these events one to aid, the general, one to observe the situation currently happening with house Mutiny, and one to asses the power needed to destroy the whale before it can cause irreparable damage to our forces… are there any of you who disagree with my plans… or the commander's plans…. On your honor!!!” The councilmen brandished his swords and gun, both resting on his left hip turning to look at the crowd of men to see if any dare challenged him.

There was no response, the man sat down, as the gavel struck once, “Should there be anyone with any more pressing matters speak before I strike three, upon the strike of three we are dismissed. He struck once more, “The plans of actions from this point forward are in stone… The commander here takes full responsibility for leading Draconian forces on these three targets… with the hopeful mindset of rescuing General Margrete should she be in any real danger. Protecting the Dam, from our enemies, while simultaneously protecting our interest in the dam itself… and putting an end to the dangers of the whale beast in the western sea…” The Gavel struck a third time and they all spoke in unison “dismissed”

As they were dismissed the commander was given stacks and stacks of papers, which he was told to sign, after he had gotten the attention of the sovereign, this was a large work load that had suddenly been dumped on him, and he found himself without his two best men to help him tackle the chores of it al. The council meeting room was quickly empty and he found himself alone. Setting the papers on the nearest desk, he scoffed at the sight of them. “They will be okay if I just leave them there for now” He thought. He wiped the sweat off his forehead glad that the man from before defended his honor by making it his own, he would not have known what to do should someone contest his honor. The defeat of Jau saw him, Apollo and Lan with great prospects, a bright future ahead of them so long as they could handle the whale, and the unicorn that had much better kill rates then they had combined. “If anything… I will send Apollo and Lan to the Dam when they recover… hopefully by then… I will have handled this Unicorn and this whale… they would like that… the place already defends itself well enough… so they would basically get a vacation… somewhat…” He looked around and nodded, “Alright let's go meet the sovereign” he said out loud, swallowing his tongue a little bit as he said it. Before now he had only heard stories, never met the most important person in Meticulous before… the leader of their world.

He began to make his way down the stairs as the men he left in charge greeted him, “How are they doing… will they live…” He was speaking of his number twos in command. The Soldier nodded, “Doc says they’ll make a full recovery so long as they don’t make their injuries worse… and apparently the damn humming bird has already been found snooping around them but no one can seem to catch the vermin… bloody damn shamed mucking up there air... “ The commander hushed him placing a finger on his lips. “According to Lan that shamed fellow is the reason they made it as far as they did… I don’t know if he is just being naive receiving help from a shamed… could very well cause one to be shamed themselves… but if he was responsible for allowing them to take down Jau… maybe you not talk badly about him in the open… shamed don’t have feel guilt… over their actions as much as we do” The commander said this as a means to simply shut up the soldier. Annoyed in the prejudice of those who don’t truly deserve it. The two of them began to make their way to the sovereign's throne room. Greeting the guards who stood at the door, the commander revealing his shiny new councilman badge, which would allow him access.

A small group of soldiers had been marching back into the city, some of these men had been on stretchers, others were being carried in coffins, those of them who had not made the trip back in time. They were coming up to the heavily guarded gates of city hall, as a courier ran up to eight men all dressed in armor who stood perfectly still. Eyes not moving to look in other directions, bodies not swaying with the wind, only blinking when absolutely needed. They stood guard of the entire fortress that was now the home base of the Meticulous and Draconian combined effort, additionally, it was where the Sovereign resided.

The courier was out of breath, holding up a small tattered paper that held the engraved golden sigil of house Meticulous on it. The signature below the sigil was that of Margrete Meticulous, which would grant the courier and the platoon behind him access into the fortress, that is after each body had been checked and investigated thoroughly by the guards. The courier was allowed access, as it was his job to alert all of the other gate keepers that that platoon was on its way, with wounded and dead men. The men carrying the wounded were inspected first along with the wounded. There were only two of them.

A guard spoke up to one of the men holding what appeared to be a sleeping boy. “Names… all of you..” The first soldier spoke up, giving the names of all of the men who were not unconscious, pointing them out as each of them raised their hands when called. “And what about these two..” The guard pointed at the two unconscious boys, that were sprawled out on stretchers. “This one's Apollo, I am sure you have heard of him, he is Baer’s boy the one who inherited a fortune after being adopted… and the other one is Lan he as of today is a sergeant which means he out ranks you… so let him through… additionally be on the lookout for a hummingbird… it has been following them around… apparently they were helped by a shamed that can transform into a humming bird… dont want that kind muck hanging around and dragging down there worth and all that, shouldn't be around important people like them… so… it is kill on site for that one… the courier is also delivering that bit or should be” “He hadn’t”

As the platoon was searched outside of the gate, Apollo and Lan along with their commander, and the select few who were carrying the wounded and the dead were allowed through. Apollo and Lan were taken to the nearest medical facility, while the dead were taken to where they would be prepared for their final resting places. The commander on the other hand had news to deliver, urgent news. He wasn’t the lowest ranking officer, but he was certainly no general or governor. He began to make his way into the main city hall building where the officers and council members worked together to make the big decisions of the war. He knew this report would look negative and would definitely put a halt to any chance of promotion he had. So he was nervous as his feet marched down a long hall way, where the Meticulous council debated and argued about military movement and direction of force.

The Council had just finished their third quarterly meeting for the day, having to meet four times over the span of twenty four hours over where the direction of their forces were, where they were going, who their targets were, and the methods they were using to capture, or kill targets vs gaining information on targets. The Commander opened doors, as a gavel struck a desk twice, but before it struck a third time, he spoke “Wait… I have news from the battle front…” While he appeared calm and collected on the surface a storm of emotions brewed, he could see the impatience and anger residing in men's eyes, the only thing they had wanted at this point was to be allowed to spend their time as they pleased, their shift due to these meetings often time causing them to nap multiple times a day, the most sleep they could get at any given point of the day being very minimal specifically due to outburst like his. It was a flaw in the command structure design, but it had been put together in a hurry, and it stuck oftentimes council members would rotate out for field positions to avoid being overworked.

Whispers followed, and then a yell “Come on, get on with the bad news then soldier!”

The commander let out a sigh, “So our mission to apprehend Jauraumer au Los was successful, freeing his slaves was not… and the casualty count is in the hundreds… and potentially growing for anyone else that ventures out into the Western Seas of Gale… the Slavers of Discord have somehow acquired means to force their slaves to transform into animals and go rabid. He had a small girl transform into a killer whale.. All of the slaves were killed… but not before my men dispatched with the slave lord and confirmed his death… the two men have received promotions as I was absent during the initial struggle attempting to receive a warrant for his arrest that was missing in my initial set of field grade orders. This time the frustrated glares had been turned back at them, he hoped that this was good enough to get rid of the growing fire that he felt under his ass.

The eyes of other commanders who were in the council looked back at him. “So you were unable to kill the whale and it now roams free… what happens when it travels… why was this not escalated to the Arch General right away… this is potentially disastrous to our entire navy considering…”

Voices began to rise up once more and the sound of arguing began to fill the room, the commander had done his part and let out a sigh of relief, he took a seat close to the door, as the council began to figure out a plan to assess, and take down this new target. They would need the Arch Governor, and Arch General’s approval for a majority of the plans they were currently in the process of tackling, that is when another soldier delivered the news the Arch General Meticulous was currently in a battle to the death with the Demon of Icarus Campus… another of their targets that had exterminated many of the soldiers they sent after her. An even angrier uproar began from that moment because everyone knew that had they not figured out what their next plan of action was they would have to take their issues directly to the Sovereign, the child with his foot on society’s throat.

The commander sat there with an amused smirk, white gloves were whipped off, blood feuds were claimed.. Leaders died right there on the table where pistols and swords were drawn out of sheer frustration and humiliation. The Darkness of house Meticulous and house Draconian were mostly apparent here, where despite being at war, they still somehow managed to fight amongst themselves. The gavel had continuously struck the desk, deafened by the sound of gunshots to skulls, and the clashing of swords, daggers, and small portable shields. Things finally began to settle down as order overcame chaos, “So… someone… needs to report all of this to the Sovereign… this is no longer within our jurisdiction… the whale and the unicorn both need to be dealt with by any means…. And then there is the issue of our previous discussion… what to do about house Mutiny… which is currently under attack by house Pandemonium… we can’t depend on them for power… if our enemies get a hold of that dam… we will be like mice at the bottom of the ocean… drowning and food for far worse fish!”

The sheer frustration of the current sitting of the battle field for Meticulous in shambles… “Well… not fishes… but a whale…” He accidentally said out loud a grin on his face, as he crossed his legs and patiently waited for the few who remained standing to make some kind of decision… or at the very least, release him from his report and let the brains figure out what the next course of action should be. He then had an idea, a means to promote himself and his men in a positive light. “Excuse me gentlemen, might I offer a suggestion…” The room began to quiet down once more, and his hands gestured for everyone to take a seat. He began to walk towards the main stage to present his ideas, “Me and my sergeants are currently not fit for battle… but given enough recovery time and a fresh set of troops… we can go back and handle the whale target… additionally when we are successful we will personally go to the dam and aid in fortifications there bolstering negotiations in good faith… after all they recently made the call for leaders to send ambassadors… what better way to show we mean business then to sent a supportive force to our cousins so to speak”

The men of the council all stopped to process this, whispers once more, albeit a significantly quieter amount. A man stood up and raised his hand, “I propose that we follow through with his plan… not only does it give him full responsibility but this also means he will be the one who has to speak directly to the Sovereign with this information, so in order to do that an immediate promotion to council member is awarded to him under the code of emergency provisions. Additionally commander… you are to report immediately as time is of the essence… we will send a recon squad to each of these events one to aid, the general, one to observe the situation currently happening with house Mutiny, and one to asses the power needed to destroy the whale before it can cause irreparable damage to our forces… are there any of you who disagree with my plans… or the commander's plans…. On your honor!!!” The councilmen brandished his swords and gun, both resting on his left hip turning to look at the crowd of men to see if any dare challenged him.

There was no response, the man sat down, as the gavel struck once, “Should there be anyone with any more pressing matters speak before I strike three, upon the strike of three we are dismissed. He struck once more, “The plans of actions from this point forward are in stone… The commander here takes full responsibility for leading Draconian forces on these three targets… with the hopeful mindset of rescuing General Margrete should she be in any real danger. Protecting the Dam, from our enemies, while simultaneously protecting our interest in the dam itself… and putting an end to the dangers of the whale beast in the western sea…” The Gavel struck a third time and they all spoke in unison “dismissed”

As they were dismissed the commander was given stacks and stacks of papers, which he was told to sign, after he had gotten the attention of the sovereign, this was a large work load that had suddenly been dumped on him, and he found himself without his two best men to help him tackle the chores of it al. The council meeting room was quickly empty and he found himself alone. Setting the papers on the nearest desk, he scoffed at the sight of them. “They will be okay if I just leave them there for now” He thought. He wiped the sweat off his forehead glad that the man from before defended his honor by making it his own, he would not have known what to do should someone contest his honor. The defeat of Jau saw him, Apollo and Lan with great prospects, a bright future ahead of them so long as they could handle the whale, and the unicorn that had much better kill rates then they had combined. “If anything… I will send Apollo and Lan to the Dam when they recover… hopefully by then… I will have handled this Unicorn and this whale… they would like that… the place already defends itself well enough… so they would basically get a vacation… somewhat…” He looked around and nodded, “Alright let's go meet the sovereign” he said out loud, swallowing his tongue a little bit as he said it. Before now he had only heard stories, never met the most important person in Meticulous before… the leader of their world.

He began to make his way down the stairs as the men he left in charge greeted him, “How are they doing… will they live…” He was speaking of his number twos in command. The Soldier nodded, “Doc says they’ll make a full recovery so long as they don’t make their injuries worse… and apparently the damn humming bird has already been found snooping around them but no one can seem to catch the vermin… bloody damn shamed mucking up there air... “ The commander hushed him placing a finger on his lips. “According to Lan that shamed fellow is the reason they made it as far as they did… I don’t know if he is just being naive receiving help from a shamed… could very well cause one to be shamed themselves… but if he was responsible for allowing them to take down Jau… maybe you not talk badly about him in the open… shamed don’t have feel guilt… over their actions as much as we do” The commander said this as a means to simply shut up the soldier. Annoyed in the prejudice of those who don’t truly deserve it. The two of them began to make their way to the sovereign's throne room. Greeting the guards who stood at the door, the commander revealing his shiny new councilman badge, which would allow him access.

The two veteran guards in the Sovereign's employ had taken their usual posts outside the throne room doors. So much for a day off. What had those rookies even done to piss the kid off? Hadn't they been given very specific instructions not to do that? Would just have to wait for their day off, wouldn't they? At least that butler had spared them having to stand in disfigured remains of two bodies. Or that it been three? Whatever, they shrugged and did the job they had been assigned to do. Which mostly just consisted of standing here and waiting for something to happen. That or wait for the Sovereign to decide he needed someone, or something, killed. No one had entered aside from the butler though. They knew the Sovereign was in there with an elite guard standing around protecting the room itself. While the two outside were mostly decoration, something they casually joked about in the barracks, they took their jobs very seriously. First line of defense as it were. It had been mentioned that wasn’t true, but given that if they got past the ones outside, they would have to get past the two at the door. Granted that would be easy, but the ones at the door weren’t going to go down without taking someone with them. Not to mention the simple fact there was a groler bear and a honey badger in there . . . Which always brought into question if the Sovereign actually needed help if he could do that. But to what extent no one dared to test out and they made sure no one tested it out either. He paid them their dues, what did it matter what the boss could or couldn’t do on his own? Wasn't that what they were there for anyway? Keep him safe and all that.

Although, there were footsteps echoing down the hall. Was the Sovereign expecting an appointment today? There had been a vague mention of someone coming over closer to dinner. Was this them? Were they early? Both guards looked at each other before straightening up and getting ready to deny access. Or at least, they thought they’d be denying access. Was that . . . Oh, no. That couldn’t be good. Not right now. Not today. They were not cleaning up this mess. The butler had mentioned something about a tea party and that it wasn’t to be disturbed for anything unless it was of the utmost importance. While they were sure this was exactly that situation, there was a hesitation for them to both look at each other again. Interrupt the tea party or make them stand out here for a while. Why were even the veteran guards terrified about this decision they were about to make?

They said nothing for the most part, just nodded their heads at the badge. They both moved, opening the doors on either side of them to reveal the throne room and its occupants. One of whom’s laughter could be heard echoing all the way throughout the hall.

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.

“Captain!” A familiar voice called out from the back. Without his armor, the officer that had accompanied the boys was a strapping young lad with long blond hair and deep blue eyes that held his soul up front. This man would always make a good soldier if never a good leader. He was dressed formally, or rather as formally as the hospital would let him before he left and he was ragged, covered in sweat from the run here. He glanced over the situation briefly, catching the new badge. “I’m sorry, councilman.” He bowed his head. “Orion au Elran, here as the leading avaliable officer to deliver the report of the events with Jauraumer to my fullest extent as an eye witness sir. The councilman stopped to think briefly before waving him along.To say that Orion was overwhelmed by the scope of the room would’ve been an understatement. In fact, in many ways it was intimidating however Orion was here on a mission. Rumors had traveled about the Sovereign's temperament and the abilities of his butler that matched so the young officer was a bit surprised to see him sitting next to that impressive throne sipping tea with dolls. A feeling of nostalgia came over Orion, and he lightly put his hand on the councilman’s arm. “Sir, I believe I can take care of this,” He smiled softly, “and if his wrath isn’t a myth, I think I have the safest route.” Without waiting for a response, he moved forward.Unfortunately because of the size of the room, all of the attention was drawn to the soldier who walked towards the young man’s party. It was a bit unnerving. “Pardon my milord,” Orion flourished a bow, “I am but a simple soldier here to give the dreadful and boring reports of the day. I was curious if I may join your party with my comrade over there.” Orion glanced at the dolls. “Since I’m new here, perhaps you could also introduce me to your friends.” After waiting a bit with no response, Orion looked at the man closest to them who seemed to be a high ranking servant of some kind with a cigarette pressed between his lips. The man made a motion and Orion sat down. “My name is Orion,” The soldier smiled softly. “Should I start with my report or shall we wait until this lovely party is finished first? I would like two lumps of sugar please.” Orion’s smile was genuine, it almost felt like he was home again before the Calamity.

There were voices he could hear over whatever words he thought he was hearing from his dolls. He could either ignore this and have Arsenic deal with it or he could kill them. Killing them sounded like a good idea. Miranda had just told him a rather amusing joke and he started laughing and ignoring the interruption again. He sipped at his tea after he had calmed down, letting the dolls talk about their dresses or something. He was simply listening until Miranda started telling him a joke again. He was glancing at Arsenic though, waiting to see if he was going to handle this. He wasn’t just shoving information at him though, he was at least being polite about it. Okay, so he wouldn’t have him killed. Yet. So he shifted just a little bit, poured some more tea into his cup and went back to sipping at it. Just decided to ignore him and Arsenic could handle it. “Oh, Miranda. You’re quite the hilarious young lady, you know that?”

“Milord, you have a guest.” Arsenic interjected, “Perhaps you could offer him the tea he’s asked for with the sugar.” The Sovereign just sort of fidgeted there for a moment before he put down his own cup, reaching for a spare that was on the tray next to him. He placed it carefully on the table, pouring just enough tea into the porcelain container, adding the two lumps of sugar, scooting the small tea cup towards the man. What was his name again, Orion?

“Hello, Orion.” His voice sounded a bit annoyed, but other than that he was doing okay. “This is Miranda,” He pointed to his favorite doll; she was the epitome of perfection in the terms of dolls. He had made her perfect; pale skin, bright blue eyes, the best clothes. “This is Raquel.” He pointed to another. This one had dark skin, dark eyes. She didn’t have on elegant clothes like Miranda, but her dress was nice enough. “And this is Blaire.” He pointed to the last one. She had flaming red hair and green eyes, something more reminiscent of what a warrior might wear. Blaire was sort of like the protector of the other two as it were.

“What’s this news that you need to share with me.” He mused, looking up over at the man from his tea cup. “It must be important for you to join the tea party, after all.”

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.

Orion had led the way, and the commander followed lost in the waves of his new responsibility. As he stepped over the threshold, past the guards, a torrent an uneasiness washed over him. He felt an unrelenting pressure on his spine, and slight sweat on his neck as he noticed the delicate steps Orion took towards the sovereign. The situation unfolding before him was becoming more clear, he wasn't speaking to another council member or some general… this is as high as he can go… the decision maker for his entire career, his entire life, he could be shamed here by a single word and couldn’t begin to hope to defend himself.

As he was introduced to the sovereign he made a mental note to address him as milord, and to announce his name. Something he didn’t feel comfortable doing considering that doing so would put a face to memory and up until this point he had mainly been addressed as commander, or sir… Rather than sit, he stood awkwardly behind Orion as though he were the one doing the escorting. He wanted to take the chance to introduce himself but before he could even think the proper opportunity had whisked by him. Something about his wrath being a myth echoed in his head… he knew damn well where there was smoke there was fire, but he had tried to conjure up stories he made have heard about the Sovereign, he couldn’t remember a thing.

As the child leader played with dolls he felt nothing but an uneasiness to the situation, looking towards the butler now, he wondered if it would have been a better idea to address him for these matters in terms of; the best time to come by, or how one, who should be familiar with these things, should handle meetings with the Sovereign. With each name he waited for a relatively decent pause so that he could introduce himself but a name came up each time he was about to speak. As he was about to speak once more and announce his presence the Sovereign asked the question that he should've to be prepared to answer. He turned his head and let out a sigh, making sure that he wouldn’t draw any attention to himself and then nudged Orion to deliver the critical news. This would be all of the collective bad news on the whale incident and his partially successful mission first and then he would have to find a way to interject with the terrible news about the General, and then the situation at the Dam… As he thought about it he really wished he had the opportunity to debrief Orion on everything that needed to be said, but for that matter he really wished he knew Orion would have been accompanying him at all.

Orion sipped his tea. "This is really good, who made it?" he mused more to himself. He nodded at each doll and burned as much as he could into his memory. He calmly set his cup down and took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, most of what I have is bad news.” He folded his hands into his lap.

He began with praising Lan and Apollo and their actions although Lan did act a bit rashly. However he did follow orders well. He praised the slaves that helped out and their courage. He even praised the giant who was Shamed, without him Orion believed Apollo would’ve died and the mission bits that did succeed would’ve completely failed. Even the greenhorn soldier did fantastically.

Orion took a sip of his tea before continuing. Most of the slaves ended up dying and the ship was destroyed mainly because of the whale that seemed to come out of nowhere. They didn’t get the information from Jau because of a combination of things, and Apollo and Lan were resting in the hospital. “It also seemed as though something was happening at the dam as we passed by via ship.”

The soldier looked around as everyone seemed to tense up. It was like they were waiting for a word before something bad happened. He watched the butler sigh softly before he put his half cigarette out on his skin. Did Orion overstep his bounds? He took another sip of tea to prevent a loud nervous swallow.

“Arsenic makes it. He likes to put a little bit of honey in it for me.” He mumbled into his own cup, sipping at the liquid. When was this guy going to leave? He was drinking his tea, he was the bearer of bad news, he was sweaty and way underdressed, and he . . . He smelt funny. This was not something to do when presenting literally anything to the Sovereign. The butler could see where this was going, but he wasn’t sure what he should do about it just yet.

Yet.

So the two of them listened to what all of what the news was. It started off good enough, he had something that might have resembled a smile on his face. He began to lean back where he was sitting, looking up at the ceiling. It seemed like his plan was working out and that was great. Although, his people had died. Like, a lot of his people had died. While all of this was going according to plan (sort of), it was the fact that the men he had plans for had died. The men that died weren’t his Elite Guard so he didn’t care as much as he should have. But they were still his and someone had murdered them. No one takes something from the Sovereign and gets away with it.

“What do you mean the slaves are mostly dead? How many are left?” Not to mention, “And what do you meAN MY MEN ARE DEAD?!” This was about the time the butler had pushed himself off the throne, putting out his cigarette. He shifted a bit, made sure he’s sleeves were rolled up. The Sovereign hadn’t been aware of it, but the tea cup in his hand had fallen on the table and broken. It was lucky that it was mostly empty, none of the tea would get on the outfits of his dolls.

“Sir,” mused the butler as he began to step closer to his boss, “I’m going to need you to calm down.” He immediately tore his eyes away from the bearer of bad news and glared at the butler.

“DO NOT GET INVOLVED, ARSENIC!” Although, the butler couldn’t really not get involved. The teenager was going to do something he was going to regret and get his dolls messy. But the funny thing about that was he was moving the warrior doll from her position in her chair. He was pointing at her, moving his fingers in such a way that she was standing up, pressing her tiny spear against the other male’s throat. As much as the Sovereign would have liked for it to be real, the weapon was fake. He wouldn't have put the real weapon in her for a tea party.

The Sovereign straightened his jacket, reaching back to run fingers through his hair. Calm down, just needed to be calm. Miranda and Raquel were safe. Blaire was safe even if she was pressing a (fake) weapon to the man’s throat. Calm. He was calm. Arsenic had moved to stand behind him, hands on the boy’s shoulder. Just massaging them to try and keep him calm. It seemed to be working for the most part.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just murder you and paint a pretty picture with your blood that I can send back to your superior with a note that says you’re a shameful excuse for a soldier.”

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.

As the sovereign let loose a torrent of emotions that terrified him, he had realized that his fear had completely vanished, and instead he had been overcome with a dreadful death wish. This was no time to be fighting amongst themselves, and for a figure head of his stature the unsightly temper of the child made him somewhat angry that he even had to deal with such a childlike leader. It infuriated him. These emotions however did not pour out on the surface as the earlier emotions had before. Orion had accomplished something that the commander needed to see… and that was the extent of how terrifying the sovereign was. While the abilities he possessed were dreadful, the sovereign himself… disappointing to say the least. He needed no courage, for in order to be brave you had to fear what you were confronting and his fear had vanished.

“Milord… My name is Cruveto au Galena of House Meticulous and the Imperator of Apollo and Lan two children who are believed to be a part of the underground Draconian project the Children of Light similar to yourself… I too am a member of this project albeit a graduator from an earlier time… before the time of Draconian…” He nodded, now to answer to give you one good reason as to why you shouldn’t not inflict harm on my soldier is because it would only hurt the morale of your men and make them less effective in your next orders…”

If his assumptions were correct, then by simply admitting that he and the sovereign had something in common, something that put them on level ground, he would be able to speak to the child and bring out the true leaders mind at the minimum. These games were not for him, and if playing these games were a requirement for the forces that he was to be a part of then he would gladly die right here, he would not die in battle for a child king, but he would die to bring forth a Sovereign’s rule that would restore the lands to peace and order.

“Your men died due to Discord’s filthy and underhanded tactics, that both Orion and I are the only people with the tact to explain it to you in ways in which you can make decisions milord… so killing him… or for that matter killing me… will only make you… all the weaker…” Cruveto looked the child king in the eye, he could see the reactions playing out in his own mind, a honey badger digging through his corpse as though he were hiding a special treat at his core.

All it would have taken for this man held at spear point by the doll to die was for the Sovereign’s finger to twitch in the wrong direction. Even if the implement she was holding was fake, he was sure if enough force was applied it would puncture the skin. He may have been forcing the doll to add pressure to the flesh, testing to see if he could possibly get away with it. Although, the anger he thought he had was slowly subsiding if only because Arsenic was really great at shoulder rubs. He was still agitated that his men were dead, but at least the rash, impulsive reaction to kill the bearers of bad news had somewhat vanished. Another deep breath was taken and his hand started to relax a little bit, the spear tip not pressing into the other so roughly now. He should probably have her sit back down, shouldn’t he? This was no way to have a tea party after all.

One of the fingers pointed in the general direction of the doll flexed and she withdrew her spear. The fingers curled and she put the weapon back where it came from and she shifted just a bit. Once the fingers had curled into a fist, she had taken sure seat back at the table with the others. He then brushed the butler off with one hand, using the other to run through his hair again. Calm. He had finally achieved something of that matter what with the shoulder rub and the words this General . . . No, this wasn’t a General, what had he said? He glanced at him and saw the badge so he was a Councilman? A quick glance over the man had been given before, but now that he was standing and in a different sort of mood, he took his time to look the man over.

“Cruveto, you said?” The boy was moving, taking one of his dolls empty tea cups. He reached for the pot, poured some fresh tea into it and handed it off to the butler, “Be a dear and hand this to our guest.” The tray would have been preferred, but he wasn’t about to tell his Master what to do. So he shifted himself around, walked the tea cup over and offered it like a good servant. The Sovereign himself was taking another of the empty tea cups and pouring himself some more tea as well. Now, this man was saying things to him, he should address that, shouldn’t he? He would admit that he felt a bit weirded out about having something in common with this man with no real way of knowing if what he was hearing was true or not. This would need to be investigated. He made note of that in the back of his mind, shifting just a little bit to maneuver himself around the table to stand more directly in front of this man.

“I suppose we’ll have to deal with Discord harshly then, won’t we? No one kills what belongs to me and gets away with it.” Although, he did that quite often, however, that was a completely different story entirely. Oh, he had a few ideas on how to deal with Discord though. So many ideas. He couldn’t use the whale per se, but the vague concept of an idea hovering around that was there at least. “And seeing as, as you say, the two of you are my only source of information on this matter, I suggest you speak your peace. It's not often the people who deliver bad news get to live.” As much as he had wanted to outright murder the two of them before, he had been prodded with the fact it would lessen moral for his paw- . . . His soldiers. He needed them to blindly trust him, to be loyal to him. The last thing he needed was for them to start questioning their mission and losing faith. If that meant keeping these two alive then so be it. Though, as he was in the process of rolling his eyes to muse an entirely different thought aloud, his eyes met with the Councilman’s. A smirk curled upon his lips and he felt himself give something of a chuckle.

“I am anything but weak,” Mused the Sovereign over the tea cup he pressed to his lips. “And I shall be more than willing to prove just how dangerous that I can be.” A pause for a moment or two while he unceremoniously drank the entire tea cup before smashing it to the ground at his feet. Quite the flair for the dramatic, this one. “Whose body do we need to strip of its skin and muscles to get what we need to done?” His way of saying that 1) his throne could always use new body parts, and 2) he was in a decent state of mind to make the right decisions.

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.

Orion didn’t feel thankful that he was still living. In fact, after he calmed down from the fact he was being threatened and that he was still alive, he felt uneasy. Something about the way his Sovereign acted threw off the young soldier. He delivered good news which wasn’t acknowledged, but that was to be expected. The only thing that was acknowledged was that men had died. Most of them weren’t even members of Draconian or Meticulous.

Something didn’t feel right about this, especially in relation to the sudden mood swing. Orion knew he was in over his head with this Children and Light business but he wanted to see something. He took his post as everyone began to move, standing at attention behind Cruveto. He would merely observe unless talked to directly at this point. When everyone settled, he found a point to focus on between the Sovreign and his man-servant.

As Arsenic offered Cruveto the cup, he looked at it, he hadn’t been particularly thirsty, and he wasn’t one for tea. He held it in his hands but didn’t drink, the simple thought of partaking in this somewhat childish affair required him to be tactful in his protest, but not rude. “Of Course milord” He said as he was told to speak his peace, no fear coming from his voice only stern grin as he believed something had finally made it past the skull of the child and reached some form of maturity that was buried. Then the image had been shattered, as he began to chuckle, as though the councilman had something funny. The threat that had been delivered to him had fallen on deaf ears, and it had been retorted with a booming voice. One not of a commander, but of a sergeant to grunts. A voice that he had picked up in his earlier days when training younger children to be respectful of elders and fearful of the things they would miss out on if they didn't pay attention. The voice wasn’t loud enough for anyone to hear, so as to ensure that no one would hear him disrespecting the sovereign, yet it was stern at the same time. He spoke in a way that was not threatening to anyone. He simply aimed to make a point.

“What is one boy… I say a gifted boy… to an army of mongrels and slaves who would gladly make a slave out of one boy…” He sighed, “I will ignore your ignorance, only so that I may get on with the task at hand… with all due respect.. Which isn’t much because I don’t think you are worthy of mine. If you want to get all of my information from me then kill me to prove whatever little silly point you wish to prove then feel free to do so… I won’t fight you back because to be honest… I do not see you as worthy of my time… and as my words seep into that fragile skull of yours... to put it frankly while in rank you soar far above me… in life lessons… experience… and perhaps even elegance I far surpass you milord… and what a shame that is… I believe if you were under my command… I could have made a real man out of you… something real… not just a handpicked boy with a crooked spine” He politely set the cup on the table declining to drink. At this point his goal was to see how far he could take this motive. Something in the back of his mind hinted at the possibility that he had a death wish, but his entire body screamed in resistance of the thought. He took off his white gloves and placed them in his pocket. This was how men indicated they wanted nothing to do with a blood feud, this is how men indicated that the points they are trying to get across mean not to disrespect but to aid in harsh words. Another common gesture, by the mentors that came from the academy. If the Sovereign were to strike him down now, there would be no way to justify it.

He locked eyes with the sovereign, indicating this would be it, the moment where he would either be put to death, either by the sovereign’s men or the sovereign himself or the two of them would come to an understanding. The tea party would be over, and they would look past the games and instead the important work of leaders would be done. He pressed his palms on the table, and leaned in wards. The tension high even though the distance between the two of them was relatively high. “You are right… on one end… I do have a taste for the dramatic…it might be the result of being lead by a child” As he leaned into the tabled he made note that all of the dolls around him could have killed him at any moment. This is not where he saw himself after returning from such a struggle, but in the end he knew he wouldn’t have changed a thing in his life that lead up to this moment.

The Sovereign was quiet as he watched the man in front of him, waiting for his reaction. It’s not like the tea was poisoned. He could drink it. He was just holding the cup. The least he could do was be polite. Or was that far too much to ask? Or maybe he was thinking too much into it? The man had at least addressed him accordingly. He would wait a little bit longer, give him a few more minutes. There was no harm in that. He was still calm, still playing nice. The butler didn’t return to a relaxed position, however. He knew that at a moment’s notice he might have to pry the two apart. He wouldn’t blame Malik for being overly emotional, couldn’t fault him for being a hormonal teenager. Hell, he couldn’t even really fault him for reacting to things the way he did; he was a child in a seat of power given to him by a morally corrupted man who thought ‘saving’ a child from physical abuse meant taking him to bed. This boy was not in a good place mentally most of the time. He could be persuaded into acting the part he had been thrusted into playing, he had done so on several notable occasions. It was just . . . He did not react well to men speaking to him the way that his father used to, however.

He listened, he watched. His hands having nothing better to do than to slip into his pockets. The butler kept glancing between the two of them, expecting at any moment the metallic scent of blood to fill the air. Of all the things that could have happened, perhaps the boy surprised even himself. He wasn’t sure what actually stopped him from killing the man. Sure, the councilman had been very disrespectful (in the SOvereign’s eyes at least), but the greatest insult of all to him was the fact the tea went untouched, the cup placed back onto the table. Could it have been how close Arsenic was to him? Was it a brief thought to the fact he might accidently spray blood onto the dolls? Or perhaps was it the fact that he could hear his predecessor’s voice echoing in his head? The voice telling him there was a time and place for everything and that he didn’t always need to outright murder someone on a whim. Despite the abuses he suffered at that man’s hands, he idolized him. Held him up higher than anyone probably should have. And oh, did he miss the man. This Councilman would have to praise the previous Sovereign for the fact the current one was letting him live at all.

He took a moment before he answered, collecting himself. He reached up and adjusted his tie, ran fingers through his hair. He ran his thumb over the length of the dragon claw ring on his finger, pausing at the tip. He could still kill him. Have Arsenic escort him to the doors, give a kill order. Or have his legs shot out from under him, drag him back into the throne room. Skin the man alive himself. Have the bones removed from the body, taken somewhere to be cleaned and bleached. Feed the rest of the body to the dogs. No, he had wild cats now, too, didn’t he? Feed the remains to the animals, he could do that. Though, that didn’t seem like something his predecessor would have approved of. He bit his lip briefly, thinking everything over in his head. For a brief moment, it truly shined that he was nothing more than a scared child trying to figure out just what in the hell he was supposed to do in this fucked up world. But that lasted only for a moment. He stood up straight, ran fingers through his hair again, gave off about as much professionalism as he could muster and caught eyes with the councilman again. If he didn’t know any better, he would have almost thought the man wanted to stick his hand down his pants.

“Led by a child you might be, but at least you are being led nonetheless.” Arsenic was once again glancing between the two. The boy hadn’t made any outright moves or gestures as to what he was going to do and that always worried him. “And I may very well be all those things the rumors say that I am, the things that you say that I am.” He shrugged, canting his eyes off to the side. He stared at the portrait of his predecessor for a long time, it seemed, before his eyes lulled themselves back over to the other adult in the room. What would his Savior do?

“Tell me, councilman,” The tone of his voice had changed from what it sounded like before, fluctuating to something more of what might fit a man in his position. “With all these casualties, the little good surrounded by so much bad, how did you think we should proceed? What were your plans and how did you wish to fulfill them?”

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.

Cruveto’s back straightened as his lifted his weight off the table, he had the mindset of having done the impossible. Communicating with the sovereign on his terms rather than his leaders was something he didn't think possible, and should he keep his head after this he would certainly gain favor and recognition among his peers. Another promotion plot popped into his head, but it would be far too soon in his current state. He just got to where he was, there should be no reason to rush it.

A grin lined across the councilman’s thin lips as order had come to save the day. Now that he had what he wanted, he felt confident in his ability to go forward with his plans and ideas. “M’lord the plan starts with the regrouping of our forces. I have sent aid to your general and I am expecting a messenger to return with news before the moon rises, once you have your general I will have a more professional mind to hear out my plans… from there I want to deal with the situation at the dam… if we can gain a better vantage point there then dealing with the whale will essentially be a cakewalk as we can use the combined forces of Mutiny and Meticulous and last time I checked we are on decent enough terms to destroy a common enemy.”

He wished that he had a moment so that he could plot out the points, thinking quickly. “Milord when you have the time I can plot out a more detailed brief for you provided I have a war table, with maps and grids… the reason I propose we move our troops out of Galeville is simply because there is nothing of worth their and for the time being until we get rid of the whale ships will be at risk. If we send a courier across the bridge and have our troops come towards the dam from both sides, whilst it is in the midst of a major conflict then not only will we be able to catch all forces off guard… but we will eliminate a large portion of the ever looming Pandemonium threat which is what house draconian was born to do… taking a massive load off your plate… the concern at this point is dealing with casualties on our own side which my recommendation to you is to reform our military structure…. Similar to how the children of light were operating before the calamity small squads of 4 to 5 men… one of them being a medical professional, one being the coordinator, one for defense, one for attack, and one scout… the scout can be filled by either the attacker or defender. I have molded my current company in this way hence the overall success rate, the shortcoming simply was due to the fact that our forces were still spread far too thin… we were to ambitious when trying to inspect the Deus Domina Jau…”

He was back to standing rather than sitting still, he did take his eyes off the sovereign for a moment, but he wasn't so tense that he forgot to blink, it was as if all of the tension in him was never there at all. To some Cruveto was an odd leader in the fact that he was always kind, collected. However there were other stories that came from those whom he had to discipline once or twice, it was as if another person was unleashed that loosened a constant and steady pressure. The moment before discussing battle plans must've been a small taste as to what lied underneath the hero of man.

Arsenic was surprised to say the least. He was also very confused. Sure, he had seen this happen before, but that was usually after a head had been gracefully removed from its neck prison. This weird sort of calm had seemed to fall over the Sovereign and he wasn’t sure how he should react to it. What made him more nervous than anything was now that he had given it some thought, wasn’t this similar to how he would react after being abused by his dad and being ‘rescued’ by the previous Sovereign? Or was he just reading too much into this? Was his charge finally growing up? Or was he on the verge of some kind of breakdown? He stayed close enough to grab him if he needed to, but remained far enough way that it wouldn't be too obvious what he was doing. His eyes glanced between the two men and he waited, only time would tell what would happen here. Though, it was the smile that the butler saw that worried him enough about the Sovereign to get closer to him.

“Regrouping of our forces,” Yes, that seemed like it would be a good start. Would need to know how many of his men were actually dead so he could calculate it into his plans to adjust things that might need to be made. Aid to his general . . . It took a moment for that realization to dawn on him as to what that meant. Oh, yeah. He had a Arch General below him, didn't he? Funny how he could just forget about that. Though, what was that? Was that a dig at him? Was it because he was young? Slightly immature? His eyes twitched, but nothing happened outwardly. He still wanted to kill this man. Was begging the voice in his head for it so much, but all he could hear was the old Sovereign’s voice saying, “Be a good boy now, you’ll get a reward later.”

“Sir, the war room hasn’t been remodeled yet. It still has all your predecessors things in it.” Whispered the butler into the Sovereign’s ear. That was a reason why he hadn’t walked in there in since the man’s death. But the boy sort of just ignored that for the time being,

“Cruveto, perhaps we can move to the war room after dinner tonight? Or rather, would you be more comfortable with doing it tomorrow after you’ve gotten your message back? I can have a nice lunch prepared and we can discuss this more in depth.” Because this whole ‘Children of Light’ thing was digging in at the back of his mind. He needed to know what this was more in depth and how he fit into it. He might have remembered something about it, but at the same time, he’d been rushed into so many things since he moved into this place that he couldn’t keep his thoughts straight.

“I will, of course, need to consult with the General on all of this, you know. Just to make sure. I want to make sure that I’m following in a manner that’s most suitable for . . . For everyone.”

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.

Cruveto nodded, respectful and understanding of the Sovereign's wishes. Waiting for the current general seemed like the best possible path to take. There was a brief awkward silence, which came with the realization that this was out of character for the Sovereign, or rather this was something that many hadn't lived to see. "Well then if there are no further questions of me m'lord, then I will stay here until the messenger arrives, out of your way and out of your other meetings but I am on constant vigil and duty so as I would like that information as soon as possible I will wait for the information and a set time to meet you as usual but I would prefer to be a constant reminder of the situation at hand rather than out of sight and thus... out of mind..."

He nodded and then stood up and bowed to the Sovereign, he then turned to arsenic and nodded once. He began to walk away from the table looked around once more, he had no intention of staying in this room but he did intend to be close by.

"No, you're free to leave and do as you please." Mused the Sovereign. He didn't know where this man was going to go. Didn't really care. Though, since he was going to be close by (though he had no idea how close) he wasn't sure what he was going to do. His tea party had officially been ruined. For lack of better things to do, his mood still in a form of limbo, he sat back in his throne and began to stare into space.

Arsenic busied himself with clean up; taking the long process to put the dolls away, cleaning the table and chairs, taking the tea supplies back to the kitchen, making the room itself more presentable. Then he stood around for lack of better things to do, keeping an eye on the Sovereign to make sure he was okay. At least things hadn't turned out as bad as they could have been, but that left Arsenic to wonder:

If not now, when was the Sovereign going to lose it again?

_________________________________________________________I have two rules. First, I'm never wrong. Second, if I am wrong . . . Refer back to the first rule.